Tonight the salters came out and I felt the all wheel drive kick in on my Subaru while heading to the Minooka Dog Park. Earlier Kanook and I were at Brookfield's Mitchell Park where the northwestern sky turned dark grey and soon a blizzard of snow pellets lashed down at us. People that I met muttered something about global warming.
Back home, there are still some leaves hanging on to the branches of my maple tree. Saturday I hauled a few trash cans of chopped leaves to the dump where I was chastised for not putting them against the wall. Sorry, I'm not a mind reader and all the leaves in the pile seemed like they would welcome some more.
I still have some leaves to contend with. I can probably mulch them with the lawn mower, but as I'm on vacation this week, I spent much of the afternoon looking for clear plastic bags and a mechanical partner to hold the bag open. Two hardware stores, a Home Depot and a Walmart later, none had anything that I wanted. There are plenty of large paper bags but sitting by the curb for the few weeks until pick-up will likely have them fall apart and looking worse than the neighbors who have raked leaves by the road thinking that they will still be picked up.
Driving around town I see a lot of leaves piled by the curb and often flowing into the street. Perhaps some are still scheduled to be picked up, but I know my ward is finished so that makes me wonder whats going to happen to all these leaves waiting for the pick-up that will not come. It seems to me that our communication of the pick-up schedule could have been better conveyed. Or perhaps some people just have not made the effort to search out the information. What I am pretty sure of is that come the first snowfall big enough to bring the plows out, an ugly, leafy mess will be overturned spoiling the small comfort of clean white snow.
Perhaps all of this can be corrected next fall. May I suggest that we take a step back to the colonial days and get the word out by via a Town Crier. Let the Aldermen wear a three cornered hat while walking the streets shouting out the ordinance and rules of leaf handling. Maybe they can include where to buy bags and holders too.
